How Queen Victoria Spared You the Agony

July 22, 2014 4:14 PM

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Whenever someone tells you that the modern economy makes people miserable and that people felt just as happy generations ago, ask the following question: "Would you like open-heart surgery without anesthesia?"

Today "sedation dentists" advertise on radio programs, offering to lull anxious patients to sleep for mere tooth cleanings. And so it's hard for us in 2014 to imagine that in the 1850s doctors would amputate limbs without either washing their hands or putting their patients into a sleepy mood. Becau...